have one's head screwed on
Meaning: To be sensible and practical.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “She's only nineteen, but she has her head screwed on.”
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: A head properly fixed on works as it should. Often "screwed on right" or "the right way." The phrase is common from the 19th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- Polish: mieć głowę na karku — literally: to have head on neck
More idioms — Body & Senses
- put on a brave face — To look cheerful or confident while feeling otherwise.
- throw up one's hands — To show that one gives up, in despair or frustration.
- lose one's head — To stop thinking clearly because of panic, anger or passion.
- lose face — To lose respect or be humiliated in public.
- shoulder the burden — To take on a heavy responsibility.
- give one's eyeteeth for something — To want something very badly.
More English idioms
- a ballpark figure — A rough estimate.
- a bird-brain — A silly or scatterbrained person.
- toss one's cookies — To vomit.
- make someone's life hell — To make someone very unhappy for a long time.
- sweep something under the rug — To hide a problem instead of dealing with it.
- push up daisies — To be dead and buried.
From our untranslatable words
- Meriggiare — To take a quiet midday rest in a cool, shaded spot, escaping the fierce afternoon sun.
- Backpfeifengesicht — A face that is just begging to be slapped — someone so smug you can't help the urge.
- Tartle — That panicky pause when you go to introduce someone and realize you've forgotten their na…